The World Club Challenge will return to Wigan early next year, for the first time since 1992. The Super League champions will play Wayne Bennett's St George Illawarra Dragons at the DW Stadium on Sunday 27 February.

In the Super League era only Bradford, St Helens and for the last three years Leeds have represented the British game in the annual fixture against the National Rugby League champions. This will be the first time a British club has played on their home ground since that 1992 game, when Wigan were beaten 22-8 at Central Park by a Brisbane Broncos team that was also coached by Bennett.

Wigan gained revenge two years later by beating the Broncos 20-14 in Brisbane in their last World Club Challenge appearance – discounting the disastrous expanded series in 1997 when all 12 Super League clubs played against their counterparts in Rupert Murdoch's breakaway Australasian competition.

St George, one of the iconic clubs of Australian sport who merged with Illawarra in 1999, have never played in a World Club Challenge. The last of their 15 Premierships was in 1979, eight years before the international fixture was established by Wigan's memorable victory over Manly.

Next year's game will be played on a Sunday night with a 7.15pm kick-off. Wigan will have to rearrange their third Super League fixture of the season, probably to a midweek date. The full Super League fixture list is expected to be published a week on Monday.